More refugees granted asylum in Europe last year
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The European Union's statistical agency says more people were granted asylum across the 28-nation bloc last year mostly because of a high influx of refugees fleeing the war in Syria.
Eurostat said Thursday the number of accepted asylum seekers rose by 17 percent to 135,700 in 2013 from 116,200 a year earlier, meaning about one in three applications was accepted out of a total of 462,000. The biggest group of refugees that were granted asylum were some 36,000 Syrians, a quarter of the total, followed by about 16,000 Afghans and 9,700 Somalis. (AP)
